


Runaways

by ifwednesdaywasaflowerchild



Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Small Town, F/M, Nat's a good girl, Steve is a drifter, The author also listened to too much Christian Kane but irrelevant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-10
Updated: 2017-06-10
Packaged: 2018-11-12 11:33:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11161020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ifwednesdaywasaflowerchild/pseuds/ifwednesdaywasaflowerchild
Summary: Steve's a dreamer, a drifter, never staying in one place for too long. Natalia's a small town good girl, who wants nothing more to escape the life she has, where everything is planned and nothing is her own. He thinks she's crazy for wanting a guy like him. She thinks he needs her. Turns out, they're both right.





	Runaways

“Let's run away, together.” slender arms curl around his left one, face pressing into his neck. “No parents. No school. Just us. You and me. We could do it, y’know?”

Huffs a breath, lit cigarette dangling from dry lips.

Nicotine and smoke. Here she is, gorgeous girl, all soft mouth and intelligent green eyes wanting to run away with _him_ of all people. How in the world is he supposed to let her go? To tell her to stop clinging onto the notion of being with him, of him, of sharing a life with _him_ when he can’t give that to her.

“You don't need me, sweetheart.” he mumbles around the half smoked cigarette in his mouth. “I'm never going the places you are. You got it good here. Don't mess it up with a guy like me.”

“What about Texas, baby?” there's a wild streak in her, always has been, and he indulges it. "I hear the rodeo's there. You could ride horses. I could be the woman who threatens to leave you if you ride another rodeo. Like that old country song we heard, the other day."

Okay, so he sort of laughs at that one.

He just can't see himself on a horse, or wearing anything a cowboy might wear. And, he can't see her as a woman in the wings, threatening to leave if he rides another bucking bronco or another bull, seething with homicidal rage.

"So, your parents can find another reason we shouldn't be together?" 

Her parents hate him.

And he gets it. He's not like-able. And he'll never be what he sees her becoming. The intelligent person. The stable, career oriented person. He's not like her and he'll never make it. He's holding her back, clipping her wings, and he's only gonna hurt her.

“Haven't you been listenin’?” he slid off of the tailgate, boots stirring up a small cyclone of dust. “You've got a life here, baby.”

“A life that's been planned for me since the day I was born.” she shrugs him off. Law school or medical school or whatever school her father paid off the Dean to get her into was never her plan. Steve was always her plan. “It isn't mine.”

“Look, you and me, we're never gonna work.” he shakes his head. “I'm not right for you. Don't hold on to me. I can't give you the life you want. Just let me go now, so I don't hurt you.”

“I don't know what I want from life. I just know I need you to be there.”

“You want to know what I am, Nat?” tears sting his blue eyes because this hurts. He loves this girl, and Steve Rogers didn’t love anyone. But, Natalia Romanov is different. He loves his college girl. “I’m a dreamer - have been my whole life until I figured out I’d never get anywhere on dreams alone. So I became a drifter. Constantly moving, speeding from place to place because I thought I was getting somewhere. I haven’t figured out where I’m going. All I know is you - you’re stable,” he motions to the truck, she’s curled up in the back of. “You’ve got college and good parents and all I’ve got is that damn truck and ninety-something dollars. You've got to let me go, Nat. Stop holdin' onto something that can't exist.”

He plays it well.

This part he's cast himself in; the small town boy, worthless for all of his charm, and thinking himself the villain. But, there's more. He thinks he's so tough hiding behind his shades and cigarettes and that ‘82 Chevy. Thinks he doesn’t have anything beyond that. She sees it, though. Sees the pain and the hurt behind the mask.

“Let you go?” she murmurs, green eyes icy and voice clipped, seeming to stare straight through him. “I don't think I can. You're not all that tough. I think you're scared to love me. I think you're hiding behind those shades. And this truck. I don't take up much space, Steve. I can go. You need me.”

_God._

He does. He needs her so much but it isn't a two-way street. She could make it on her own, have a good life, and not think twice about him. He’ll always be the outcast, the boy without a thing to his name, and she’ll always be the one with the world at her fingertips.

“I can’t take you with me.” Steve growls, glaring at her. It’s half-assed, nothing behind it. Nothing real, anyway. “I can’t ruin your life. Your parents would never forgive me for that.”

“Who cares about them?”

Her thin shoulders, the ones he’s spent so many summer nights with his arms around, they shrug casually. She’s so quick to brush off whatever might get in their way that he wonders how long she’s been considering this, if she has contingency plans in place to deal with whatever curve balls are going to get in the way.

“I do.” he takes her face into his hands. “You’re the good little college girl. I’m the small town nobody. If I left, nobody would think twice but you - they love you, here.”

“I don’t care about them.” Natalia’s voice is firm. “I care about you - about where you are, because I want to be there. I want to go with you. I think I could be good for you.”

“You are good for me, sweetheart.” Steve grins, leaning his forehead against hers. “That’s why I’m afraid of wrecking you.”

“The only way to wreck me is to leave without me.” she curls her fingers into his flannel shirt. “Because my life has never been mine. It’s always been my Dad living through me. I’m tired of living for my Dad. I want to live for me and I need you to do that with. I need you with me.”

His eyes close and he releases a breath; “Okay.”

“Okay?” Nat’s head tilts back, expression skeptical.

“Let’s do it.” Steve kisses the tip of her nose. “Let’s get the hell out of here. Wherever you want to go.”

“I don’t care where we go.” she reassures him, pressing her mouth against his. “As long as you’re there. You’re my courage.”

Steve Rogers has never had anything that he didn’t have to steal or work twice as hard as anybody else for. His truck was the cheapest on the entire lot and it took him two months of extra shifts just to make the down payment. Here she is, the town’s fairy princess, attending law school and being everything everyone needs. And, she wants - no, she needs him, because he gives her courage.

Natalia Romanov may as well have just handed him the moon on a damn string.

That’s how happy he is.

**Author's Note:**

> This is a repost of an old story after a nearly year long break from the Marvel fandom and thinking I was done.


End file.
